Appendix E: Client Interview Summary
Introduction
We had our initial interview with our client, Jennifer Sampras, a physiotherapist from Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, on Tuesday, January 11th, 2022, at 5:00pm, on Zoom. Most of the students were present but only four people, one delegate from each team, were the interviewers: Adelina Amineva, Jhanvika Bhakta, Kayla Tillman, and James Zhang. The purpose of the meeting was to learn more about scissoring gait, the existing solutions, and the problem with them. This appendix summarizes what we learned about the condition, users, and requirements.
Requirements
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Can be recreated easily
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Must be sturdy since the most important factor of gait trainings is the high repetition
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Can safely support users weighing up to 250 pounds
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Usable with a walker, since walkers are used often in scissor gait therapy
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Usable in physical training facility
Users
Patients
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Patients that have experienced a stroke or TBI
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Age 50-75 years old
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Weight between 180-220 pounds, but can go up to 250 pounds
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Severity of the scissoring gait varies across patients from milder cases to complete crossing, but mostly the more severe cases are going to use the equipment
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Additional problems could be the following: decreased or absent movement on one part of the patients’ body, absent sensation, decreased or absent proprioception (not knowing where their body is in the space)
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Some patients needs the help of a physical therapist because they are uncoordinated that it is unsafe to let them walk alone
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Some patients are confused why they have to learn to walk due to the brain injuries but most of them would like to walk independently again
Others
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Only the physiotherapists are the secondary users, since it is a rehabilitation device used in their facilities
Existing solutions and their problems
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A tapeline on a treadmill to visually prevent the patients of crossing their legs
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It can be hard for patients to look down
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​Bands on the feet, pulling them apart, so that the patients can’t cross the midline
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Yellow and orange-colored pathways
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​The patients can see where they should put their foot but sometimes, they just can’t control their movements, therefore this solution doesn’t really help in severe cases
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EVA walker
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Big and very heavy, but works well
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Tests
These are the ways how the severity of the scissoring gait can be tested:
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6-minute-walking-test - tests walking endurance and efficiency by measuring how much the patients can walk in 6 minutes straight with as many rests as they need
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10-meter-walk-test - assess their walking speed by measuring the time they need to walk from 2 meters to 8 meters
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Berg-balance-test - assess their balance